


Always Here

by Umbella



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 11:58:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8623672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umbella/pseuds/Umbella
Summary: Somehow, even on bad days, when Sora would call "Axel!" to get his attention, he didn’t feel as much the familiar bubbling of annoyance and frustration. Sora—even being the one who slipped up with his name the most out of all of them, even with his stupid smile and his almost girlish giggling and his touchy-feely...ness—didn’t get on his nerves as much as he expected him to.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is set in the period after dream drop distance where sora, kairi, riku, and lea are staying and training at yen sid's tower.

Sparring was an expected part of keyblade training. Lea was a good fighter and he was already starting to get the hang of making his keyblade appear. Of course, every once in awhile he found himself slipping up and reverting to his old ways. The chakrams were so familiar to him, he was so used to wielding them, that sometimes in the heat of the moment he abandoned his keyblade and went all out instead, spinning wheels and blazing fire magic. Scolding always directly followed this. _You have to learn control, Axel._

 _My name is_ Lea.

It was a constant. He continually had to correct them. Even Yen Sid himself slipped up a few times. For the first few days, he understood and let it slide. But after about two weeks was when he started to get irritated. Was it that difficult to memorize such a simple name?

Was it that hard to see him as anything but a Nobody?

The person who did it the most was Sora. Sora, with his ever present grin and his cheery shrill voice and his incessant encouragement. The kid was just so positively _positive_ and it drove him nuts. Why was he so damn happy all the time?

Irritation usually got the best of him. Controlling his attitude wasn’t something he was used to doing. But.. somehow, even on bad days, when Sora would call _Axel!_ to get his attention, he didn’t feel as much the familiar bubbling of annoyance and frustration. Sora—even being the one who slipped up with his name the most out of all of them, even with his stupid smile and his almost girlish giggling and his touchy-feely...ness—didn’t get on his nerves as much as he expected him to.

Sometimes when he flopped down in the grass, panting in exhaustion and frustrated from yet another defeat, Sora would come and lie next to him, panting just as much from the intense sparring. Lea would look over and there he was, blue-eyed boy staring at the sky smiling like he was seeing an old friend again. The vibrant red of twilight reflected in his eyes before he let them slide shut.

_Like I asked, know-it-all!_

Lea remembered these moments vividly not because they were anything special, but because of the strange feeling in his chest when they happened. A spark of familiarity. Something stinging his eyes… getting up and turning away before anyone noticed.

Sora’s bright blue eyes were hard to look at, because even past the eerie resemblance, it was the knowledge of what was behind them that struck him the most. Somewhere inside him was a boy he knew, had spent so much time with and could recall all of it like it was yesterday. Every word, every gesture. The good and the bad.

Lea often wondered if Sora ever looked at him and felt the same way. Of course, he knew that Sora didn’t exactly have all of Roxas’s memories. They were buried too deeply within his heart for him to recall so easily. But sometimes when he looked at Sora and those childish eyes sparkled, he thought that he could feel Roxas, staring right back at him and saying _I’m here._

_I will always be here._

 

-

 

“Don’t give up, Lea! You almost had it this time!” Sora called from a bit of a distance away, cupping a hand around his mouth to amplify his voice while waving his other arm in the air, bright smile plastered to his face.

Lea let out shaky exhales through an open mouth as he looked towards Sora, closing it and bringing his arm up to wipe the sweat from his face. Steadying himself, he looked down at one of his hands and finally took proper notice to the chakrams he was gripping tightly. He frowned hard at them, shaking his hands and forcing them to dissipate, small bits of flame and smoke releasing into the air and disappearing along with them.

Riku stood up out of his battle stance, his keyblade disappearing as well in a small fit of shimmer.

“Don’t worry, Lea. You’ll get the hang of this eventually. If I can control the darkness in me, then so can you.” Riku gave him a small reassuring smile, having walked towards him as he spoke, he put his hand on his shoulder and then let it fall away as he walked past him. Riku wasn’t as hands-on and in-your-face as Sora was about his encouragement, so extremely contrasting from that loud boy. He wondered at how those two mixed so well.

He sighed, straightening his posture and taking deep breaths as he stretched out his arms, feeling the very first onset of the soon to be much worse aches that came from pushing himself so hard each day. He blew out his breath through his mouth with his eyes closed, opening them again and staring out at the sun as it set in the distance.

“That was _great,_ Lea!” Sora’s loud voice came from beside him suddenly, jolting him along with the heavy slap on his back. He looked down at Sora, grinning up at him and looking like he had just witnessed the most amazing feat. Lea lifted and eyebrow but then laughed, shaking his head. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised at this point. Sora linked his hands behind his head and leaned back on them a bit, giving a small laugh in return and looking out at the sunset just the same moment Lea did.

It was a few long moments of comfortable silence, Lea was feeling more relaxed as of late. He was starting to feel accepted into this group, unlike anything he’d ever felt before. No schemes, no menial tasks, no overbearing boss-man to kneel to. It was.. nice.

“Y’know, I remembered something earlier.”

Lea blinked, glancing down curiously as Sora broke the silence.

“Remembered something?” He asked.

“Yeah. I know we’re not really supposed to leave the tower, but.. well, I wanted to get something.” He said, all while still looking ahead into the horizon.

Lea blinked in confusion, until Sora started to move, pulling something out of his pockets. Lea watched with interest, tilting his head a little to try to see what it was.

When he saw, he took a short breath.

“For you!” Sora said, smiling brightly as he held out the light-blue colored popsicle.

Lea was so taken aback by the gesture that he didn’t react at first. He stared at it and at Sora with a look almost of awe, his lips slightly parted. In Sora’s other hand, he held another. Seeing this prompted him to accept the one offered to him, hesitantly reaching out and taking it from Sora’s gloved hand.

He held it in front of him, looking down at it, expression unreadable. After a while, and before he realized how uncharacteristically quiet he was being, Sora once again caught his attention.

“Lea?” He said, his voice lilting slightly in concern. Lea blinked rapidly a few times, his little trance broken, looking at Sora again finally.

“S-Sorry. Um.. thanks.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, clearing his throat awkwardly and looking away. Sora smiled at being thanked, and then nudged him lightly with his elbow

“Hey, come on. Let’s sit.” Sora started walking towards the edge, prompting Lea to follow.

“Oh.. alright.” Lea was still in sort of a daze. One look at the sea-salt ice cream had vivid images starting to flood his mind and take him back to the ledge of the clock tower. He had to snap himself out of it in order to respond at all.

Together, the two of them sat on the edge where the land ended, feet dangling down. Sora almost immediately took a small bite out of his own ice cream, staring out at the twilight and leaning back on one hand, kicking his feet a little.

There was prominent hesitation lingering in Lea, not seeming to want to go away. It was as though, if he took a bite into this ice cream, he’d look over and see Roxas staring back at him and he wasn’t sure he was ready for that. Funny, he never thought ice cream could make him so uneasy. Despite all this, though, he took a bite anyway. It was as good as he remembered.. it had been such a long time. The taste only brought back even more memories, and on impulse, he glanced over at Sora. To his relief or disappointment, he couldn’t be sure, there was still a messy mop of brunette. He let out an inaudible breath.

After a moment, Sora met his gaze.

“What’re you so happy about?” Sora asked, amusement heard in his voice, smiling back even if he didn’t know what there was to smile about.

Happy? Lea didn’t realize until that moment that he even had been smiling. When he noticed it, it didn’t go away. Involuntarily, he laughed a little.

“Ha.. nothing. This is really good. Thanks, kid.”

“Hey! You’re not _that_ much older than me, you know.”

“I’ll have you know I am at least six years your senior. At _least.”_

“Like I asked!” Sora laughed out loud.

An unexpected rush of warmth flooded Lea’s chest, rushed down into his fingertips and throughout his whole body. He couldn’t contain his laughter and let it out, bringing one hand close to his mouth but not covering it, his eyes closing for a moment. When he opened them he was met with the golden red light of twilight, and his eyes shone a bit as his laughter died down with Sora’s. His smile was there to stay. He breathed out.

“...Axel? What’s wrong?” Sora’s voice came, leaning over a bit to look at Lea’s face. He barely even noticed the name Sora spoke.

“What?” Lea asked, confused until he suddenly felt his tears overflow, his eyes had been noticeably watering. He brought a hand up, touching the side of his face lightly. “Oh…” But then, he noticed Sora’s own face. Sora already had a tear streak of his own, his eyes also noticeably damp. For a moment, he almost thought he saw a flash of a familiar face.

“You too.” He said, and Sora blinked, noticing very quickly what he meant and then looking just as confused.

But the moment didn’t last long.

“God, I’m being assimilated. I’m turning into a sap just like the rest of you bunch.” Lea said, taking a quick bite of the ice cream after sniffing sharply and wiping his face.

“Hey!” Sora yelped defensively, and Lea side-glanced him. He smirked and continued to eat his ice cream, turning his gaze forward again, leaning back on his hand and crossing one leg over the other. Sora hit him playfully and Lea laughed as Sora wiped away his own tears. Honestly, what was with all the touchy-feely nonsense around here? He was one to talk. He was just as bad as the rest of them. Just a little better at hiding it, maybe. Until now, that is. But this could stay between the two of them, right?

In the end, neither of them mentioned the elephant in the room. There was no need. Both of them knew what had happened. Sora knew exactly what Lea was thinking and Lea saw it in his eyes. There was an unspoken understanding between them, a comfortable familiarity towards Sora that he didn’t have with any of the rest of them. And in his heart—the one that he absolutely, definitely knew he had—he knew that even if he couldn’t always see or feel him, Roxas was right beside him as long as Sora was.

  
And, you know… Sora wasn’t so bad, himself.


End file.
